Congratulations! You're rich!
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:27 am
When you hear Democrats bemoaning tax cuts for the "richest one percent," look out. They just might be talking about you. If you make $42,200 a year or more, you are among the richest one percent - in the world, that is.
Want to see just how rich you are? A new website, the Global Rich List, allows you to plug in your annual income, and the site tells you where you rank among the world's richest people.
For example, if you are single and make $9,300, you may think you are poor. That's the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of poverty. But compared with the rest of the world, your income is in the top 12 percent.
According to the site, an annual household income of $42,200 -- the U.S. median in 2001 -- is enough to land someone in the world's richest 1 percent.
The site uses figures from the World Bank's Development Research Group, which estimates that for the world's 6 billion people, average annual income is $5,000.
Nicolas Roope, one of the site's creators, said "The idea is to really make people think about how rich they are compared to the rest of the world."
Roope is the creative director of Poke, a London interactive media company. He launched the site to coincide with this week's World Trade Organization summit in Cancun, Mexico, where poor countries are pitting themselves against rich. Key issues include cheap generic drugs for developing nations, and an end to richer nations' huge farm subsidies and high tariffs, which one Brussels think tank, the Center for the New Europe (CNE), says are responsible for 6,600 deaths per day in poor countries.
According to the CNE, because richer European countries impose tariffs ranging from 20 to 250 percent on chickens and orange juice from Bolivia, and the European Union spends $41 billion a year to subsidize their own farm products, Bolivia's people die of poverty.
Now, back to the website that declares you to be rich. Roope admitted the calculations don't take into account disparities in the cost of living, taxation and other factors that contribute to income. "It's simplified," he said. "The goal is to make people think."
It has made people think, and it had made some of them mad. The site has received lots of e-mail, including some hate mail. Roope says most of the hate mail is from U.S. citizens who perceive an anti-American slant.
Hmmm. Isn't that interesting? It seems most Americans like anti-rich rhetoric just fine until they too are defined as being among "the rich." Now more of us have a chance to know what it's like to be the subject of scorn because we are among the richest one percent.
Want to see just how rich you are? A new website, the Global Rich List, allows you to plug in your annual income, and the site tells you where you rank among the world's richest people.
For example, if you are single and make $9,300, you may think you are poor. That's the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of poverty. But compared with the rest of the world, your income is in the top 12 percent.
According to the site, an annual household income of $42,200 -- the U.S. median in 2001 -- is enough to land someone in the world's richest 1 percent.
The site uses figures from the World Bank's Development Research Group, which estimates that for the world's 6 billion people, average annual income is $5,000.
Nicolas Roope, one of the site's creators, said "The idea is to really make people think about how rich they are compared to the rest of the world."
Roope is the creative director of Poke, a London interactive media company. He launched the site to coincide with this week's World Trade Organization summit in Cancun, Mexico, where poor countries are pitting themselves against rich. Key issues include cheap generic drugs for developing nations, and an end to richer nations' huge farm subsidies and high tariffs, which one Brussels think tank, the Center for the New Europe (CNE), says are responsible for 6,600 deaths per day in poor countries.
According to the CNE, because richer European countries impose tariffs ranging from 20 to 250 percent on chickens and orange juice from Bolivia, and the European Union spends $41 billion a year to subsidize their own farm products, Bolivia's people die of poverty.
Now, back to the website that declares you to be rich. Roope admitted the calculations don't take into account disparities in the cost of living, taxation and other factors that contribute to income. "It's simplified," he said. "The goal is to make people think."
It has made people think, and it had made some of them mad. The site has received lots of e-mail, including some hate mail. Roope says most of the hate mail is from U.S. citizens who perceive an anti-American slant.
Hmmm. Isn't that interesting? It seems most Americans like anti-rich rhetoric just fine until they too are defined as being among "the rich." Now more of us have a chance to know what it's like to be the subject of scorn because we are among the richest one percent.
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